Are tracks in tape mono or stereo?

OP-1
1

Hi there,


I know, that bounce is mono, but what about the four tracks? are they mono or stereo?

I mean, you play some melody on synth, then add effect (which is (maybe) stereo), record it to tape, and I hope its not mono… Then you will have only the main effect to do some stereo effects…

What is it then? :slight_smile:

2

Mono

3

Hm… so you cant actually record some panned hihats or this sort of thing… :confused:

4

Hi @MileStorm, aside from panning things in the mixer section, there are heaps of things that can be done with a set up where you keep one track panned hard left and another panned hard right. Check out this thread:


https://www.operator-1.com/index.php?p=/discussion/507/panning-techniques

Takes a bit of getting used to because you immediately have to “sacrifice” two tracks to stereo tricks, but once I found that setup, I never went back.
5

They may still be mono tracks, I’m not sure but with tape any/all of the four tracks can be panned across the stereo field using the mixer section. Add a touch of reverb or delay to taste on the master effect (which is stereo) and its all good.

6

@yoof: Thanx, I will look on that thread :slight_smile:

@wolflegjon: adding global reverb or delay will be bad for the percussions :slight_smile: Sure, depends on the style of the song…

7

I usually pan two tracks a bit to the right and two to the left. Then whilst recording to album I manually pan tracks if it’s needed.

8

@MileStorm Very true, it completely depends on what you are going for. I’m a ever-relapsing reverb/delay junky :slight_smile:

9

You can use M1/M2 to “automate” panning when recording to album which is pretty cool too